Just a couple of hours after naming his team to face Italy, Wales coach Warren Gatland sat down with the media to discuss the big issues.

From the news Samson Lee could miss the World Cup and the chance of Adam Jones coming out of international retirement to the prospect of Wales still winning the Six Nations title this weekend, this is how the conversation unfolded.

Question: Warren, can you talk us through your team selection, in terms of the changes to the starting line-up and on the bench?

Warren Gatland: The two changes in the front-row are pretty obvious in the fact that we’ve got two guys injured. So that made that easy. Then, with regard to the bench, we have looked at picking a team that may potentially need to score some points.

If we were playing for a Grand Slam and having to win by one point, then some of the team or the bench might have been a bit different.

We have picked players that we think can come on and have an impact and give us some go-forward and real footballing skills. This whole championship has been about horses for courses and that’s what we have done with this week.

Q: What about the change of scrum-half on the bench, with Gareth Davies for Mike Phillips?

WG: One of the things about Gareth is if you look at his try-scoring record. He’s incredibly quick, he scores some wonderful tries out of nothing for the Scarlets. He can come on and give us something a little bit different.

If we need him to come and run the ball and take the Italians on, that’s part of the decision behind him being given that opportunity.

Pictures: The verdict on the team to face Italy

Q: How bad is the injury to Samson Lee?

WG: It’s going to be long-term. It could potentially keep him out of the World Cup.

Speaking to the medics, he is having an operation and we are confident he can have enough time to get back and be available for the World Cup.

Wales' Samson Lee leaves the field on a stretcher during the RBS 6 Nations

Q: Did you consider giving Adam Jones a call? Robin McBryde made the point he would be open to Adam giving a call to you. If that happened would you perhaps have made a different selection?

WG: If Adam Jones wasn’t retired from international rugby, then he may very well be in the squad now. But, as far as we are concerned, he has retired, so until he makes a different decision on that then, for us, we haven’t even discussed Adam Jones because he is not in contention.

Q: How about Tomas Francis? How has he impressed and how close he might be to a place as the next big scrummager in that tight-head shirt?

WG: He’s come out of Exeter, a team that’s second in the Aviva Premiership. He’s 136 kgs, he can scrummage, so he’s got a start. We have integrated him in the squad just for him to get a feel for it and to learn. We have been very happy with him. He scrummaged today in a live training session and looked good.

We have been impressed with the way he has changed and for us we think he’s someone definitely worth persevering with. He’s a medium to long-term project in terms of whether we can get him right for the World Cup. Then he’s definitely someone we think is going to have an impact in that position.

Q: How about the opposition? Italy were uncharacteristically quiet against France.

WG: For Italy, for me, it’s very simple about the game. They get their confidence from two areas. If their scrum and driven line-out goes well, then they build the confidence around all other aspects and areas of their game.

WATCH: Warren Gatland on the team to face Italy

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They started off pretty well in the first 15 minutes against France and eventually the French got on top and took both those aspects of the game away from them. That’s why we saw France dominate so much in the second-half.

Q: At what stage in a game do you get a message on to the players that the game is won and it’s time to open it up and look for the points?

WG: It depends on the scoreboard doesn’t it?! Is it 15 points in front, is it 22 points in front? The important thing for us is not’s let get carried away about the scoreboard, let’s win the game first, because there are two other games afterwards.

The worst thing for us would be to go out and try and score 40 or 50 points against Italy, end up playing too much rugby early on and lose the game and then find that Scotland and France win and we have potentially cost ourselves a championship.

We have got to be smart about the way we approach the game. It’s about accumulating points, it’s about doing a job up front and then if things go well then maybe being able to open up things later in the match. It’s making sure we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

Q: There was a brand new trophy made for this year’s Six Nations and one replica made and they are going to Twickenham and Murrayfield respectively this Saturday. Is that a disappointment for you that if you win the title you won’t have a trophy to get your hands on?

WG: Not really no, I don’t think so. We can understand from the points difference that they are taking one to Twickenham and one to Edinburgh. If we do get enough points and win, we will celebrate in our own way.

We will maybe some medals to hang around our necks and maybe we will have to wait 24 hours before we can get presented with anything. For us, it’s just a bit of wait and see. I don’t think they anticipated that going into the last weekend there would be three teams, and potentially France as well, still having a chance of winning the championship.

Wales captain Sam Warburton and head coach Warren Gatland pose with the new 6 Nations Trophy

Q: With the way you have come through the championship and given that the odds are on the trophy going to either England or Ireland, is the pressure off you to an extent?

WG: I don’t think so. We look back and sort of kick ourselves because we could potentially be playing for a Grand Slam. The unfortunate thing for us is that sometimes as a team we have been slow starters. I don’t know how many times in recent years we have ended up with England as the first game and that’s always a tough game.

It would be nice if you were getting one of the lesser teams to be able to build a bit of momentum. That’s always the challenge for us. If you look at the next two years we play Ireland first up away, which is going to be tough, and then we play England again first up. We are pretty happy where we are.

We said after the disappointment of the first game that it was about getting back on the horse, building some momentum and putting ourselves in contention. We have done that. Maybe it might come down to points difference and we will look back on things like conceding a last minute try to Scotland and two or three of those kind of things could be the difference between winning and losing the championship.

Look, we are in a good place mentally, we are training well. It is going to be tough on Italy because how much are they going to be able to do with just a six-day turnaround and hopefully the weather is reasonable so we can go and play some pretty good rugby.

I thought we played some really positive stuff against Ireland. We mixed it up well. People have spoken a lot about our defence obviously but I thought some of our attacking options were outstanding.

Q: Could you just re-visit the Samson Lee situation. What are his chances of making the World Cup?

WG: 50-50 I think. That’s a six-month injury. He was going to be operated on yesterday, but he’s got too much swelling, so they are waiting until next week, which unfortunately puts him back a week.

We have the two warm-up games against Ireland, home and away, and then we have got Italy after the World Cup squad is announced. So look if he is up and running and in contention and things go well he won’t be far away.

Whether we take the risk in naming him without too much rugby, that is potentially a possibility. Really it’s just down to the medics. For everyone with that sort of injury, it can be two or three weeks either side.

He might be lucky and rehabs and recovers well and gets another two or three weeks or he might be slow and he misses out. I think he is a 50-50 chance at this stage.

He is going to be operated on next week. It’s a full rupture, which is sometimes is a little better than a tear that rehabs and takes a lot of time. At least we know what it is and hopefully we can get it right and we can see him back on the field as quickly as possible.